Nexus - 0217 - New Times Magazine-pages

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of evidence that various frequencies of both sound and colour can _rate, out of the kitchen through an inch-and-a-half hole bored in be curative. But ‘hard rock’ is not consonant with nature's own the wall leading to the living room, where it boustrophedonly harmonics. I believe birds exposed to it for long periods would _roved back and forth along the ceiling on wires strung eighteen fall ill and die, just as Retallack's plants withered away." inches apart, to attain a length of over a tenth of a mile. He waved his hands like an evangelist. "I get over a hundred During the next year Carlson began snipping four-inch shoots calls a year, from people experimenting with my broadcasts. Most _ from his vine, which he started in small plastic pots. Four hundred of them say that when the sound is turned on plants actually tum _ of these, labelled with his address and phone number and a request away from the sun to grow toward the speakers! Always! Tome to call him for a replacement should the shoots die, he took to a that means the sound is as important to plants as whatever we _ flea market, where they rapidly sold for $4 apiece. understand about photosynthesis. Perhaps that's what Rachel "I had many calls," he reminisced, “but none were to complain Carson meant when she intimated that ‘spring’ might one day be —_ about sick or dying plants. Instead the callers wanted to know silent without Vivaldi's violins.” why the offshoots from my mother plant were growing twenty, With a cold Minnesota winter coming on, and limited space in thirty, forty, fifty feet long, and even more. I at once thought that which to carry on his early experiments in a VHA-financed home, _ this unheard-of development might give rise to the possibility of Carlson took a big step: he spent eighty-eight cents on a tropical whole new strains of hardier superflora." Gynura aurantiaca or purple passion vine. Despite this achievement, worthy of Known also as a velvet plant, native to the Luther Burbank, when Carlson, in happy Indonesian island of —_-: fleshy teardrop excitement, asked members of his univer- leaves are densely covered with violet veins i sity committee to come to his house to and hairs, and its yellow-orange dishlike In only the first three see for themselves what he had done, flowers exude a nasty smell. But to Carlson months, the vine, which ~ their only reaction amounted to a yawn. this was his cherished baby. Once a month : : Didn't h lise, th ked, that, with a cotton swab he applied doses of nutri- normally never exceeds a bent ii cantina wo gm de on ent to the tip of his vegetal pet, almost home- length of 18-to 24 inches, a non-edible house plant, they were of no opathically weak doses, while simultaneous- commercial value or interest? ly getting it to ‘listen’ to his sonics. The had growna total stem of . ae ' bi ae Oe ithering: ty ‘I was dumbfounded,” said Carlson. "I ap eee Be EE ae ee 150 feet could hardly believe this reaction. Here but quickly a new sprout burgeoned forth 5 was the first time in their lives they had one leaf below the dead tip to grow at an heard of sound being able to enhance the accelerated rate. Within a few days, the uptake of nutrients to produce the kind of original tip had completely recovered and A 4 " - : — ; growth I was getting, and they cast the result aside as worthless. pre ern F yor ane el Mame, tnelyy Desperate to get anything into the public record that would sub- ha ea led 4 4 fi Carl 4 stantiate his achievement, Carlson wrote to Guinness Superlatives 5 r- Sok — . tafe a me pl, he Son screwed | imited in Middlesex, England, publisher of the now famous teacup hooks into the wall of his kitchen, six inches apart, to Sup: Guinness Book of World Records, which sent to Minnesota to port it; and so fast did the vine race for the hooks, he had to add check his claim "specialists in the matter of freaks in the plant half a dozen every week. kingdom" At which point he made another startling discovery. If he \ snipped the growing tips with a scissors, the Javanese plant, far Carefully measuring his plant's stem, inch by inch over its entire length, the fre: iali Ison. Thi from daunted, put out a new shoot at the first leaf node below the —_ the = 6 ye cae an a entry a eut ‘ 113 extolling his find. To counter “od notion that his new method As novel as this seemed to Carlson, he was even more puzzled was commercially by his pet's growing not only the teardrop leaves characteristic of yalueless, Carlson : its species, but also saw-toothed ones typical of its Indian cousin pext began to supply Gynura sarmentosa, along with completely alien split leaves pre- portable sonic equip- viously never seen on any purple passion plant. The sound-plus- ment and nutrient solution treatment appeared to be strangely affecting something to mix to backyard gar- do with his vine's genetic qualities even as it grew. deners who had In a paper on his experiment submitted to his professor, Carlson called him after the presciently asked: "Does one cell of a plant genus contain all the Minneapolis Star ran characteristics of all the species of that genus? If not, why hasmy —_a huge photo of the plant, grown from a Gynura aurantiaca cutting, developed leaves, Carlson family stand- over 90 percent of its length, peculiar to the Gynura sarmentosa _ ing under the passion and, at the same time, exhibited an entirely new split-leaf form? _ plant, its leaves inter- Could the combined application of nutrient and audio energy twined in the sup- result in such rapid growth rate that the very process of evolution porting chain of a is condensed? Have I enabled my plant to adapt more quickly to chandelier before its environment? Is this the reason for the different leaf character- proceeding, through istics appearing on one plant? If any of these questions can be additional holes in F answered ‘yes’, can this knowledge be applied to other plants? the wall, into his Could food crops be treated to achieve more rapid growth and bet- _ children's bedrooms. ter adaptability to their own or alien environments?" Not to be outdone, As winter wore into spring, and summer into fall, Carlson the St Paul Dispatch, noticed another oddity: his plant had bloomed not the usual once, describing his but twice. Even more fantastic was its incredibly extending African violets, with length. In only the first three months, the vine, which normally more than four hun- never exceeds a length of 18 to 24 inches, had grown a total stem dred blooms in a full of 150 feet. During the rest of the year it pushed on at the same _ spectrum of colours, NEXUSe25 DECEMBER 1993 - JANUARY 1994